1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cassette with a memory having a digital memory which can store various kinds of information of a recording medium (for example, a magnetic tape).
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital VCR for digitizing video data and recording onto a magnetic tape is being developed. Since a transmission band of digital video data is very wide, the digital video data is subjected to, for example, a DCT transformation or the like and, after that, it is recorded onto a magnetic tape.
A digital VCR into which a cassette package having a memory or the like therein can be loaded has also been proposed. There has been proposed a digital VCR such that by loading such a cassette package, a signal can be input or output into/from the digital VCR and a representative still image of a program recorded on a cassette tape, a tape address from which the program starts, table of contents (TOC) information, and the like are stored into the memory, thereby simplifying the accessing operation and realizing a high processing speed.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,338,644 and 4,383,285 are disclosed that a memory loaded in a recording medium cassette of a VCR stores reacording data, and in Japanese Patent Application number H04-217503 and corresponding to EP Application number 0,580,434, are disclosed such recording medium cassette. Each of the above application are owned by the assignee of the present invention and are hereby incorporated by reference.
In addition to the cassette with the memory as mentioned above, there is a cassette without a memory. There is also a digital VCR which doesn't correspond to the cassette with the memory but can correspond to only the cassette without a memory. When the cassette with a memory is loaded into such a digital VCR that is used for only the cassette without a memory, it is demanded that information (tape length, tape thickness, kind of tape, tape grade, etc.) about the cassette itself is read out by any apparatus from a viewpoint of the problem on compatibility.
When the above-mentioned cassette is loaded into the digital VCR, it is impossible to know information regarding whether the cassette loaded is a new cassette or an old cassette used before or the like. In the case where the cassette with a memory is not properly loaded in the digital VCR, a correct communication cannot be performed between the cassette and the VCR.
When the above-mentioned memory is constructed by, for example, only an EEPROM or the like, it needs a long writing time. When the memory is constructed by, for example, only a flash memory, a long accessing time is needed and also it is necessary to provide a buffer memory to the VCR.
By the way, such a memory is not loaded to the tape that is applied to an analog VCR such as a camera integrated type VCR or the like. Therefore, the tape information of the video tapes which are used in such VCRs cannot be read out.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a cassette information judging method and a cassette information judging apparatus in which even in a VCR that is used only for a cassette without a memory, only the predetermined information of a cassette with a memory can be read out and an application of the cassette can be judged by the predetermined information read out.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cassette with a memory in which it is possible to know whether a loaded cassette is a new cassette or not and to know whether the cassette has correctly been loaded in the VCR or not.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cassette with a memory in which some kinds of memories are provided and are used in accordance with the kind of data to lie stored respectively.
It is another object of the invention to provide a cassette with a memory in which the tape information of a tape that is used in an analog VCR can be read out.